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Ovi-less Caps visit Devils on an active Wednesday

What's it like playing without your superstar scorer? The Washington Capitals will begin to find out when they visit New Jersey on Wednesday night, one of six games on the NHL schedule. The Caps will be without Alex Ovechkin when they come to the Prudential Center (7 p.m. ET) -- the two-time Hart Trophy winner is listed as week-to-week with an upper-body injury sustained Sunday against Columbus.

Even with Ovechkin, the Caps lost their first meeting with the Devils, blowing a 2-0 lead in a 3-2 shootout loss at home on Oct. 12. That's one of New Jersey's seven victories in as many road games; however, the Devils are 1-4-0 at home.

Also at 7 p.m., the San Jose Sharks will go for their fifth win in a row when they visit Nationwide Arena to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL Network-U.S.). The Sharks trampled Carolina 6-1 on Sunday to improve to 10-4-1 and stay on top of the Pacific Division. The Jackets come off a 5-4 overtime win at Washington.

Revenge will be on the mind of the Buffalo Sabres when they host the New York Islanders (7 p.m. ET). The Islanders whipped Buffalo 5-0 at the Nassau Coliseum on Saturday, and the Sabres haven't played since then -- giving them time to rest and recover from the flu bug that's been going through the locker room.

Two struggling teams will face off when Carolina visits Florida (7:30 p.m. ET). The Hurricanes have dropped nine in a row since blasting Florida 7-2 at the RBC Center more than three weeks ago. The Panthers won road games at Dallas and St. Louis over the weekend, matching their win total for the first four weeks of the season.

Calgary visits Dallas (8:30 p.m. ET) in a battle of teams that have lost their last two games. The Flames lost to Colorado and Detroit to finish a disappointing five-game homestand, while the Stars dropped a 6-5 home shootout to Florida on Friday and lost 4-2 at Nashville the next night.

Two of the NHL's most surprising teams face off when Phoenix visits Colorado (9 p.m. ET). The Coyotes lost 5-3 at home to Los Angeles on Monday but are still 9-5-0 after 14 games after finishing next-to-last in the West last season. Colorado is off to an even better start -- the Avs are 10-3-2 despite playing 11 of their first 15 games away from the Pepsi Center, where they are 4-0-0.